DHL In the Firing Line Over Escalating Rights Abuses

DHL In the Firing Line Over Escalating Rights Abuses
– Questions Pile Up About Logistics
Giant

Deutsche Post DHL’s ‘record of shame’
will be exposed before its annual general meeting in
Frankfurt tomorrow. The logistics giant has repeatedly
failed to answer a growing catalogue of workers’ rights
abuses, including unfair dismissals and backing fake unions
across its global network. Its behaviour risks alienating
shareholders and clients.

UNI Global Union and the ITF
(International Transport Workers’ Federation), which
between them represent 20 million union members, will lead
the charges against the company, both inside and outside the
AGM.

The two organisations have repeatedly held the
company to account over abuses of workers’ rights in
countries where it operates and which, they say, it would
never dare commit in Germany. They have shown how it has
illegally fired workers in Turkey and used lie detectors
against staff in Colombia, Panama and South Africa; and
relied on agency workers to work on lower wages and with no
job security in the UK, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. One
DHL company was even fined after staffing a US factory with
students who thought they were on a cultural
exchange.

These concerns will be raised at a press
conference to be held tomorrow, 29 May from 08:30 to
09:30 at the Bigfood Höchst café at Silostraße 91,
65929 Frankfurt Höchst. This is opposite the
Jahrhunderthalle (www.jahrhunderthalle.de)
where the AGM is taking place. Speakers will include:
unfairly dismissed DHL Turkey employee Aysel Simsek; Tiny
Hobbs, ver.di district chair for Department 10 (postal
services); Ingo Marowsky, ITF global head – supply chain
and logistics; Alan Tate, UNI campaigns director; and Gurel
Yilmaz, general secretary of the Tumtis union. Please let dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
know by email if you will be attending the press
conference

Ingo Marowsky, ITF global head – supply chain
and logistics, explained: “The questions are piling up for
DHL and this AGM is just one of the places where they’ll
be asked. Questions such as what’s happening in Turkey?
How can you allow your management there to sack workers who
have chosen to join a trade union? How is it acceptable for
you to ignore them and sponsor a rival union whose only DHL
members are those reportedly forced to join bymanagers? And
there are more questions that shareholders, investors and
customers want answered too, about how all this can be
reconciled with DHL’s corporate responsibility policies
and claimed observance of the UN Global Compact. And why the
company is in court in Turkey and has been hauled up in
front of the OECD.”

He concluded: “The facts are there
for all to see. We – unlike DHL – have scrupulously
investigated what’s going on. We have commissioned
independent research and shared and published it. Sadly
the company has continued to hide behind commercial
confidentiality and never-revealed ‘audits’, or claims
that it would be ‘inappropriate to make any further
comment about the court cases’.”

Alan Tate, UNI
campaigns director, stated: “DHL’s tactics in Turkey are
unlawful under Turkish labour law – and some of them may
also violate its criminal code – and violations of ILO
(International Labour Organization) conventions and other
international standards on freedom of association.”

He
continued: “The company’s defence of its use of a
‘yellow’ (fake) union is risible. According to the
official statistics from the Turkish Ministry of Labour
released in January 2013 – when DHL were proclaiming it as
a viable choice – this bogus ‘union’ had only 26
members in the entire country. Its creation is a cynical
ploy. The ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) has
expressed its concern to us over this.”

Concerns about
DP-DHL’s behaviour in some of the countries in which it
operates will be raised inside the AGM aswell as outside –
where protestors from the ver.di union and Turkish community
groups will also be highlighting these issues. Among the
protestors will be Aysel Simsek, one of the unfairly sacked
Turkish workers, and her daughter Ipek. She will be handing
out the following leaflet:

A
request for DHL shareholders

My name is
Aysel Simsek and this is my daughter Ipek. I was employed by
DHL in Turkey for 4 years as a packaging and pricing worker
at the Kirac site. I loved my job and was proud of it, but
on the 4th February 2013, I was dismissed. I believe this
was done because I stood up for the basic human right of
belonging to a trade union.

Since April 2011, 35
other members of our trade union, Tumtis have been dismissed
in a similar way. All 35 had one thing in common, they were
trying to organise the union of their choice in the
workplace. We have been involved in peaceful picket lines
for over 300 days.

Like you, we want to see DHL
grow and prosper in Turkey and worldwide in an ethical way,
so we would like you as shareholders to ask Frank Appel why
DHL is attempting to destroy the legitimate union in Turkey
and has fired 36 workers who were trying to form a
union?

Indeed, Turkey is not the only country where
DHL’s commitment to the freedom of association to belong
to a trade union and workers rights is
wavering…

Did you know that…
• In Turkey, all of the
dismissals taken to court were found illegal and four cases
specifically stated the workers were illegally dismissed for
their trade union activities?
• DHLhas used lie detectors
against staff in Colombia, Panama and South
Africa?• DHLhas relied on
agency workers to work on lower wages and with no job
security in the UK, Malaysia, Indonesia and
India?• OneDHL company was
even fined after staffing a US factory with students who
thought they were on a cultural exchange.All of
us want to see DHL perform to its best across the world, but
by denying the essential right to freedom ofassociation to
join a union, the company risks actions that are disruptive
to its image in the eyes in the customers and the public. So
far its actions have resulted
in:• In November 2012 a
complaint being lodged to the German government (Ministry
for Economics) alleges that Deutsche Post DHL violated
international standards for multinational enterprises (OECD,
see DHL CSR report page 34).•
Deutsche Post DHL has been downgraded by a number of
investment advisors as a result of allegations that it
continues to violate labour rights in many
countries.• A number of DHL
clients expressing concerns about DHL’s labour rights
record in countries like Turkey and Colombia.
• Deutsche Post DHL’s
reputation as an ethical and responsible company continues
to suffer as a major media outlet in Germany exposes its
anti-union behaviour in Turkey and around the
world.

The ITF and UNI, working with ILRF
(International Labor Rights Forum) and SumOfUs have drawn
these matters to the attention of major DHL customers,
including: Adidas, Ann Taylor Stores Corp, Apple, Arcadia
Group, Astra Zeneca, C&A, Fast Retailing, H & M, Hugo Boss,
Ikea, Johnson and Johnson, Marks and Spencer, Merck Sharp
Dohme, and Tom Tailor. These and others have gone on to
raise these concerns directly with DHL.

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